Back from market hiatus

[dorchadas]

I did not watch the debate because why would I? There is literally nothing in the world that could possibly make me vote for Trump. If Biden had torn off his skin-suit and revealed that he was an advance scout for the Q'kani Annhilators, here to bathe our world in cleansing flames and incorporate it in their empire, I'd say, "Well, at least they'll get the plague under control."

Monday was Yom Kippur, held entirely online. It was pretty rough, to be honest--the best part of Yom Kippur services is the feeling of community, and being all together in the same place makes the fasting easier. Last year was one of the best experiences I've had at Mishkan, spending Kol Nidrei there and then spending the entire following day praying and singing and learning with hundreds of other people and then going to Break Fast at the end. This year sashagee wasn't feeling well and everything was streamed, so I stayed home, I spent most of my time in the office staring at a screen, listening to pre-recorded songs and live (?) talks by the rabbis, and it felt more like something I was just getting through. As I said in a meeting yesterday, I spent all of Yom Kippur in a room, watching a screen, and it felt like a normal work day except I was fasting. It's supposed to be separate, but it really didn't feel like it.

My book group today just finished Mortal Kombat, the novelization of the movie, which was...certainly words on a page. It started so promisingly, with the creation of the world and then Kung Lao in China 1500 years ago, and then it turns into multiple character introductions and random fights and effectively the character select screen and splash page with Techno Syndrome playing over the top of it. I mean, with dialogue like

"Nice try, but between the two of us you're the Lao man on the totem."

...when Kano fights Kung Lao, what else do you need? Characterization? A satisfying ending? A plot that isn't derived from a video game strategy guide? FINISH HIM.

Tomato, red pepper, and corn soup from Karl's Craft Soup, with limpa bread from Lost Larson and fresh basil jack from Stamper Cheese mixed with store-bought colby jack used to make a grilled cheese, and green beans from Hardin's Family Farm on the side.

The soup was only okay, sadly. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't heat the soup up hot enough because I was simultaneously trying to keep the green beans hot, make the grilled cheese, and heat up the soup, or if it's just because I wasn't a fan of it in general. I mean, I don't like corn that much so it could be that. The corn was really the only thing substantial in the soup, the rest of it all blended together. In contrast, the grilled cheese I made was fantastic, the sourness of the limpa and the sweetness of the jack cheese combined beautifully. The tomato sauce was just the icing on the delicious grilled cheese cake of my dinner.

The green beans were pretty good. I put some powdered onion and cayenne pepper on them and pan-fried them.

Another brownie from Letizia's Natural Bakery, but this time it's a raspberry almond brownie. The one I got two weeks ago was good enough that when I saw there was another version of it it leapt out of the page at me, I ordered it immediately. It was better than the previous brownie, so much so that I didn't need to warm it up. The raspberry gel on top gave the brownie lighter, fruity taste. I'd definitely get this over the regular chocolate one any day.

Also, after I cut this I realized that I cut this portion of the brownie so it looks exactly like the offerings at stick sweets in Hiroshima.


sashagee hasn't been feeling well lately due to, in her words, "feminine problems," but she's on the mend now. She couldn't do much other than sleep at the end of last week, but now she's eating soup behind me as we both play Final Fantasy XIV. Right as the weather turns to real fall, too. When she's feeling better, I want to go back to Horner Park where I heard the shofar over Rosh Hashanah for leaf-viewing and a picnic before the weather gets too cold.

Comments

[earthspirits]

You were wise to skip the "debate" - it was horrific.

Sorry sashagee has been under the weather, but that's good she's feeling better.

The food looks good.

And best wishes for Yom Kippur, although sorry it couldn't be held in the usual way.

[dorchadas]

Thank you!!

She's playing games now and not just lying on the couch watching videos, so she's able to be more mentally active now. A good sign.

[helvetica]

I second the above you would have hated the debate. Aaron watched it and I caught like 3 minutes of it and I was just like "nope!"

I'm sorry your Yom Kippur wasn't as fulfilling as before. I agree that the monotony of doing everything within the same space gets really challenging.

I think it's hilarious and amazing that there is a mortal kombat movie novelization

[dorchadas]

Mortal Kombat: the Game: the Movie: the Book. Near the end Shao Kahn says something like, "I shall await Mortal Kombat too" which I missed the first time but someone pointed it out to me and...

I'm really hoping I can get out and about a bit more in the fall, to see the leaves at least. Leafviewing is one of the things I love to do.

[corvi]

Mmmm, grilled cheese, it sounds incredible.

Does your book club specialize in terrible books? I'm not sure how they selected that one...

[dorchadas]

We pick themes, and this theme was "novelizations" and Mortal Kombat won the vote. I offered the novelization of A New Hope, but I think it came in third.

[corvi]

Is the A New Hope novelization any good, or just not-bad-for-a-novelization? I haven't read a lot of novelizations, but I think it's a hard genre to write well; things that work well on screen don't work well in print sometimes, but you can't adapt them much.

I do remember, years ago, really enjoying the novelization of the first X-Men movie, which featured a lot of Rogue, who copies other mutants' powers by touching them. The author had to portray Rogue's internal experience, and wrote her as seeing the world differently depending on which power she was currently matching, like when she was copying fire powers she saw the world like an infrared camera, etc. He talked a lot about how disorienting the synaesthesia was and how she struggled to figure out how to use new powers and even what everyday items she was looking at each time she copied a new power. I don't know if this is a comic-canonical version of Rogue's internal experiences, but I liked it and it fit well into her general angsty theme of struggling with her abilities.

[dorchadas]

I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure, but I think it was written before the movie actually came out so some of the plot details are different and that's the main part I wanted to talk about with my book group.

That kind of thing is exactly why I was interested in doing a movie novelization for the topic! It's so hard to show characters' inner life on the screen but books excel at that. Now I kind of want to track down that X-Men novelization. I'm not super in to cape comics, but Rogue having to adapt to her mutations seems like a compelling story.

[kjorteo]

The novelization of Willow is pretty good, in that it manages to give some actual depth to an otherwise forgettable film. Between that and the NES game, I feel like Willow broke the Adaptation Curse by somehow itself being ehh it was okay I guess enough that licensed games/books/etc. somehow wrapped around the other side and became great like some kind of weird buffer overflow glitch.

Unless "the actual original movie is the worst part of the EU" is just the George Lucas effect in action, I guess.